Harrison Li holds a photo of his father, Kai Li, on Jan. 23, 2024, in Palo Alto, California.
Jeff Chiu/AP
Three Americans have been freed from prisons in China on Wednesday in an apparent swap deal brokered by the Biden administration, according to the State Department.
Politico and The New York Times reported that the Americans were freed in exchange for Chinese citizens imprisoned in the U.S. NPR could not independently confirm the details.
The Chinese government did not immediately confirm the identities of the Chinese nationals involved in this deal.
The Americans freed from China are Mark Swidan, a businessman from Texas, who was arrested in 2012 and accused of drug related offenses; Kai Li, who had been held since 2016 on espionage charges; and John Leung, who had residency in Hong Kong, and was sentenced last year to life in prison on spying charges.
The State Department said in a statement on Wednesday that all of the “wrongfully detained” Americans in China are now home, crediting diplomacy with China.
The statement said the three Americans are being reunited with their families for the first time in many years.
On Wednesday, the State Department lowered its official travel advisory for mainland China and Hong Kong to Level 2, “Exercise increased caution.” The U.S. previously recommended Americans reconsider traveling to China due to the risk of wrongful detentions and exit bans.
Human rights organizations say that since 2012, China has increased the imposition of exit bans on both Chinese and foreign nationals. Beijing rejects these characterizations.
It was not immediately clear if the change in the travel advisory was related to the prisoner release, but the new advisory for mainland China cites risks from arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including related to exit bans.
The travel advisory was also lowered for Hong Kong, but maintained at Level 3 for the city of Macau. The State Department said that was “due to a limited ability to provide emergency consular services” in the former Portuguese colony.
The Level 3 travel warning had been cited by educators as one of the reasons the number of American students studying abroad in China has remained low since Beijing lifted pandemic controls in late 2022.
In September, an American pastor jailed in China for more than 18 years was released.
